A pointy ears woman was standing in front of a plain glass window. She stared at the ocean beneath her. The clouds slowly brushed past the window.
"He's there Alpha Guardian" Another pointy ears woman walked into the room. The woman put her cloak on her head before turning back.
"So the Kethen kid was right" the Alpha guardian had a surprised look on her face. She then walked towards the door with royal grace. After leaving her room, the alpha guardian saw several huge telescopes with golden runs glowing on them. Her team of guardians was looking through the telescope to keep the target in their sight. All of them were standing under an arch-shaped glass ceiling. The hall slowly moved through the clouds. One could see several runes in various shapes flickering on the glass ceiling. The bright moonlight acted as their chandelier, giving its radiant blue to light up the hall.
"Are the rune archers ready?" the alpha guardian asked her assistant.
"They are in place, Alpha Guardian" the alpha guardian looked through the glass to see several figures dressed in white to blend with the clouds floating in the air with huge crossbows in their hands. Her gaze then locked on the ship floating on the horizon.
"Alpha Guardian" another one entered the room. The figure quickly knelt in front of the alpha guardian before taking off the cloak.
"Is your team ready, Guardian Peyton?"
"We are waiting for your order, Alpha Guardian"
"Lead them well, Guardian Peyton"
Peyton's brows arched up in surprise. She was lost for words after hearing the Alpha Guardian.
"I cannot cross the void line as it might wake up something that shouldn't be woken up. So I'll trust you to lead the team"
The Alpha Guardian's tone sounded like an order. In front of her, Peyton was meek as a house cat.
"You won't regret this, Alpha Guardian" Peyton never looked so proud and confident in her life before. She now had the power of the entire hunter guardians behind her.
Just as Peyton was about to leave, the Alpha Guardian called her.
"Peyton, we don't take prisoners" her words were cold, filled with murderous intent. Peyton nodded obediently before leaving the hall.
"Tiriana" after Peyton left the hall, the Alpha Guardian called her second in command.
"Alpha Guardian"
"Shadow them and protect the Kethen kid. He's not ready yet"
"As you wish Alpha Guardian. But why send him in at all if this is not safe for him?"
For the rest of the guardian guild, Tiriana was Alpha Guardian's second in command but in reality, they were best friends. Hence, only Tiriana had the guts to question the Alpha Guardian.
"Because Peyton is not a leader, he is" Before Tiriana could as another question, the Alpha Guardian answered her question as she had read Tiriana's mind
"Peyton is expendable like all of us Tiri but not him"
*****************************************
"So shall we leave? I need a good night's sleep before the tournament" Gaya was lying on the bed as Michael was modifying the APD to be undetectable during the tournament.
"Instead of sleeping, you should cultivate. Do not underestimate your opponents, snake"
"Have some faith, jerk. It's not like I'm going to lose to a bunch of Body Strengthening kids" she sent a bolt of arch energy to hit him on the shoulder with a flick.
"I'm not talking about the run of the mill cultivators. I'm talking about the prodigies"
"Speaking about prodigies" Gaya turned sideways on the bed to look at him,
"You are not as mad as I thought about human trafficking. You're awfully calm"
"What would you want me to do? Loose my screws and go berserk on Minister Magnus. You of all people know there are thousands of people who get hurt every day. We can't stop them all or it's not our focus right now" Michael finally fixed the APD with the help of the system. He put the APD back around his wrist.
"What happened to those girls was indeed a tragedy but every tragedy comes with an opportunity. I just utilized it. If we were to go with the plan of recruiting Sadie before, she would have contacted the Guardian guild in a split second. But now" Michael just grinned.
"You're cold as fuck and that's why I love you" she jumped up from the bed towards him. Wrapping her hands around his neck from behind, she gently landed a soft kiss on his cheek.
Boom!
"What the?" just as she was about to reach for his lips, the entire shoo violently shook. She would have thrown off to the wall if it wasn't for her hands around his neck.
Michael's face immediately turned serious as he detected several hostels approaching the ship from all directions. They appeared so suddenly.
"We are under attack!"
Boom!
Boom!
The ship shook again as the booming sound continued to reverberate. Soon, the wall behind Michael's throne was obliterated into millions of wooden splinters by a five-meter-long purple arrow.
"Lightning Dash" he immediately cast the lightning dash, sensing another arrow soaring towards them.
"Argh"
"Human!"
Michael growled as Gaya saw an arrowhead striking out from Micahel's chest. The arrow would have pierced her if he didn't shield her with his body.
Pulch!
"Grrr!"
Before the APD could completely heal the wound, another arrow pierced him from behind.
"Go put all our crew in the container and tell Gibson to submerge!"
Ignoring the pain, Michael quickly ordered Gaya. He could sense some powerful figures approaching them.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The sound of cannon fires appeared again. The ship was getting destroyed in all directions. He could see the smoke and flames coming through the hole behind him. His focus was not on saving the ship but saving Gaya and the crew.
"You're coming with us!"
"Lightning Dash" As Gaya shook her head, Michael dashed away yet he was too late as another arrow pierced his shoulder. His blood splattered on Gaya's face. She began to shiver.
"We have no time to argue GO!" Activating the death range, Michael stomped the floor as they dropped from their cabin to the below deck.
They were knee-high in water. The huge holes in the hull let the seawater rush inside the ship. He could see the ship would sink in a few hours if this attack continued.
"GO!" Pushing away Gaya, he raised his arms at her. A strong gust of wind immediately sent her flying away from him. Since Maxine left with Sadie to meet with Tiberius, the task of saving the crew fell on Gaya's shoulder.
Michael leaped back to the cabin through the hole again. Instead of using Lightning Dash which might reveal his identity as Ghost, he flew out of the room.
The moment he stepped out of the cabin, he was welcomed by numerous airships hovering above them. Each of them resembled a man of war with a huge air balloon attached on top to make them fly.
Michael pulled out the three arrows sticking out of his chest one by one. He stored them in his space ring before moving towards the door to the below deck. He tried to remain calm despite being surrounded by several warships in all directions.
He ripped off a wooden piece from the wall. Then, he shoved it across the door to prevent anyone from the other side from opening.
The ship then began to vibrate as the captain's cabin slowly moved downwards. Michael relaxed a bit realizing the submerging still works. He calmly walked towards the captain's cabin, looking at people wearing silver armor dropping from the warships above him using ropes.
"Guardians"
Everything around him moved in slow motion. The sight of his ship getting bombarded to death gave him a mixed emotion of sadness and anger. He couldn't help wondering how the guardians managed to locate him. It seemed like someone outsmarted him or left a piece of evidence behind somewhere that led them to him.
As he was walking to his room, he noticed golden arrows soaring through the cloud. They didn't hit him but landed on the deck in a formation. The formation soon created a translucent blue dome around the ship.
Whoosh!
In a couple of moments, the entire Silent Reaper submerged into the water.
"Human! Human, are you there?!" Gaya's voice sounded in his head. Her voice was filled with dread and panic.
"Take all of them to the crypt. Don't come back under any circumstance"
"No! You can't leave me" her voice stuttered,
"I'm not. Just do what I said. I'll put airbags in your space ring, use them to breathe underwater. Unless you want me dead, do not come looking for me" Michael cut the connection between them immediately. He didn't have time to argue with Gaya.
Entering the system store, he quickly bought airbags for the crew to breathe inside the container.
[The host cannot use runic teleportation while in a battle]
The system reminded him. Although he did not forget about this, he just tried his luck.
His room immediately flooded with seawater. He sat on his throne waiting for the ship to emerge so he could welcome the guardians personally.As he was sitting on his throne, the cloud of darkness slowly faded away. He felt something blocking him from using Arch energy. The sensation was similar to what he felt during the fight with the young master. The young master used a rune formation to prevent Ghost from using the Lightning dash. This felt similar but stronger.
*************************************
After the ship emerged from the water, in addition to hearing several footsteps, he also sensed the warships circling the Silent Reaper in a diamond formation.
His X-ray vision enabled him to see through the wall. He could see at least fifty Core Strengthening stage cultivators with crossbows, spears, and swords surrounding the cabin. Among those, there were a few weak ones. Instead of the Core Strengthening warriors, it was these weak ones that kept walking towards his cabin. He just placed an orb on the table, waiting for them to come in.
Boom!
The front door exploded into bits as four figures walked into the room through the cloud of dust. Michael recognized four figures immediately. They were Peyton, Xanali, Alicia, and finally Noah Winston.
"Lucifer," Peyton said as the Core Strengthening warriors in silver armor flooded the room, surrounding Michael.
"Your game ends here"